Hubble image
Gear
Years ago I purchased my first scope from a big box store like many others and after some time was discouraged by the lack of quality. I was busy, so lost interest in pursuing it further. It was this 4.5 inch Meade reflector on an Alt/Az Go To mount.
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Then a few years ago my brother in law gave me this Orion 4.5 inch reflector on a basic manual Equatorial mount he got from a client of his. After replacing a few needed parts I started to get enthused again and had to learn how to operate a manual EQ mount.
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Once I retired, it was time to get more serious and I started learning all I could about Astronomy. I got an Orion XTg 10 inch Dobsonian mount GoTo scope. It's a great visual scope, I liked being able to find Deep Sky objects and planets.
254mm primary mirror 1200mm focal length f/4.7 focal ratio |
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My desire now is to be able to photograph the objects I like to view, so I upgraded again to this Explore Scientific Maksutov-Newtonian. It has a meniscus correct lens at the front, a spherical primary mirror and elliptical flat secondary. This gives a flat field, coma free, color aberration free, and no star spikes from secondary mirror support veins.
152 mm mirror 731mm focal length f/4.8 focal ratio I use a Canon T3i for the imaging camera, a ZWO 120MC for guide camera which doubles as a planetary camera on the Dobsonian. The scope is mounted on a Celestron AVX equatorial mount. |
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